Posts Tagged ‘assistant’

Marketing can be a great deal of work, especially when you have so many other tasks to complete. Is it time to hire some help? You may think you’re not ready to take on a new assistant. Then again, perhaps you’ve been ready for a while, but were too busy to really consider it.

Here are some things to think about as you consider hiring a Marketing Assistant.

WHY?

So much of staying in touch and building relationships with your clients and prospects is about reaching out, with messages and information, reminding them of your knowledge, services, or simply that they are valued. While you may feel more qualified to do this, there is something to be said for keeping your time free to handle the work you cannot delegate. Hiring a Marketing Assistant (either virtually or within your office) may help to relieve your workload and give you an opportunity to expand your marketing outreach.

WHEN?

There is no “magic formula” as to how many contacts or how many outbound messages signify that you’re ready to go to the next level. However, mailing out cards and letters, creating email campaigns and maintaining contact lists can be cumbersome, at any level. Social media (like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) offer new options, but new challenges as well, especially in creating and finding content to share with your followers. So the answer to the eternal question “When?” is often “The moment it’s necessary to delegate the job, so that your energies are focused elsewhere.”

HOW?

Hiring a Marketing Assistant doesn’t mean you are no longer participating in the process, it just allows you to guide the direction your efforts take in a different way. There are a number of ways you can hire a Marketing Assistant, but they boil down to two options: Virtual or Live.

A live assistant may be a new hire, perhaps part time, or you may prefer to add to the responsibilities of an existing employee. Depending on your circumstances, you may have to trust this person with sensitive information. What about when they move on, are let go, or have a life event that prevents them from working? Hiring an individual who works from home (over the Internet) is much the same.

A solution that many prefer is subscribing to a marketing service that has the flexibility to create content, send marketing materials in a variety of formats, and may even offer different levels of support to meet your needs in terms of cost and features. While many of these online marketing solutions will afford you more time without the potential perils of hiring an actual employee, they often do require more interaction and input. Additionally, you want to make sure the service you select is industry-specific (compliance-minded.)

If you’re not ready to have a new employee on staff, or don’t feel you have quite enough work yet to keep them busy, a Virtual Marketing Assistant, as offered by MarketingLibrary.net, may be worth considering. (Yes, we’ll toot our own horn!) Numerous services are available which may prove invaluable as you expand your marketing reach, and generally you can expect to get more bang for your buck by pairing your virtual assistant with our robust marketing system. You can read more about this service here: https://www.marketinglibrary.net/mpva.asp

IS IT TIME?
While you may never fully be comfortable with any “hands off” solution to marketing, depending on your ambitions, you may not have a choice – at some point, you’ll no longer be able to do it all on your own. A Marketing Assistant may help you sweep an important aspect of your business practice into the “out” box, leaving you free to approach your wider goals.